kingdomofmistfandomcom-20200213-history
Garou History
Early History The Garou did not reach the British Isles before 10,000 BCE at the beginning of the Mesolithic period. The Impergium and War of Rage were both enforced by White Howlers who spread from Scotland through Wales and England. The Fianna and Get of Fenris served sometimes as allies, sometimes as enermies eager to claim kinfolk and caerns. With rare exceptions, this triad of tribes dominated England's protectorates until the arrival of the Silver Fangs of House Winter Snow, who claimed England for themselves until being challenged by their fellow Silver Fangs who traveled Conquering Claw with the Roman Legions in the first centuries post BCE. The War of Silver & Iron most likely began in Eire, but spread across to the Isle of the Mighty. It left a rift between the Silver Fangs and other non-Fianna Garou and the Fae that would not be undone until long after the Shattering. That may be part of the reason that the native Garou were ill-prepared to deal with the Silver Fang invaders- the Fae simply retreated from areas claimed by the Romans, obscuring themselves and their glens. No one knows for certain the exact timeline of subsequent events. The White Howlers fell to the Wyrm, corrupted into the Black Spiral Dancers just as Conquering Claw fell into internal strife brought on by events in Rome. Austere Howl rose from its ashes in England, claiming the last of the untainted White Howler kinfolk as their own but did not challenge Winter Snow's general sovereinity. The Fianna, Fenrir, and later the Glass Walkers and Bone Gnawers were often in conflict with the Silver Fangs but never able to unseat their political dominance of the English Concordiat during the next few centuries. Winter Snow, Glastonbury, and Camelot Flavius Claudius Constantinus was a Roman General born in the late 4th century who was kinfolk of Conquering Howl, as was his wife. He declared himself Western Roman Emperor in Britannia in 407. His sons, Constans, Uther, and Ambrosius Aurelianus became legendary kings of England, surpassed of course by Uther's son Arthur Pendragon. Arthur's court included several actual Silver Fangs of the fledgling House Winter Snow, including Gorlean. The first King of Winter Snow, Constantine Hunts-At-Dawn, was grandson to Ambrosius Aurelianus and was deeply invested in Camelot. King Constantine's descendents became a powerful dynasty within Garou and human politics which included that lasted until the 1600s. Austere Howl & The Fenrir Saxon/Viking Invasion After the death of Arthur, however, the Silver Fangs became embroiled in war against the Saxon Kings such as Cerdic of Wessix and their Fenrir kin. By 650, however, the Anglo-Saxon Fenrir in England conceeded to the authority of House Winter Snow. King Æthelheard of Wessex, who ruled from 726 to 740 was Silver Fang kin. Viking raids along the English borders again brought the two tribes into consistent conflict, especially when Fenrir Sea-Wolves attempted to raid caerns. The Get of Fenris had gifted kinfolk, storm-singers and rune-smiths who fought at their side. This spurred the Silver Fangs of Austere Howl to intentionally breed with kinfolk and other humans who likewise demonstrated psychic gifts or spirit affinity to combat them. It soon became the custom for the Fianna, Silver Fangs, and Get of Fenris to seal treaties and aquired valuable fetishes by trading pure-blooded kinfolk to one another, a practice that continued through the Norman Conquest but became less common in the 12th century. From the rise of Anglo-Saxon culture in England, there emerged House Austere Howl in Northumbria and several new Fenrir controlled septs. Austere Howl was founded by Coenred Silverclaw, fathered by sister of the existing King of Winter Snow and the human ruler of Northumbria. Coenred Silverclaw claimed to be Constantine Hunts-At-Dawn reborn and appeared to be capable of channeling the spirit of the legendary king. He sought out and laid claim to the last untainted White Howler kingfolk, made pacts with the Fae rulers of the North Country, and fought ferociously against the Black Spiral Dancers. House Gleaming Eye & The Norman Conquest King Rollo, the first Norman dynast was kinfolk to the Get of Fenris, not the Silver Fangs, He begat a Trueborn son, William Longsword, with the daughter of a Silver Fang of Gleaming Eye in Gaul. William Longsword rose to power and became a King himself who was supported by both tribes. The House of Normandy remained Gleaming Eye kinfolk through the subsquent generations and kept control of the English throne away from Winter Snow until the death of Henry I in 1135. The emnity between Winter Snow & Gleaming Eye never ended. The Children of Gaia decried their constant wars and intruiges, pointing out quite justly that their strife only weakened their ability to fight the Black Spiral Dancers, fomori and other minions of the Wyrm. Nevertheless, the two Silver Fang houses fought each other fanatically until the sucession of Henry Plantagent brought the English throne back to Winter Snow in 1154. The Fall of Winter Snow: The Silver Crown The Fianna, Get of Fenris and Silver Fangs fought countless wars through the 1100s-1600s both with each other and factions within each tribe. King Aaron Emberstone reached out to the celestines of the Aetherial Realm for a means to bring peace to the three tribes and obtained the Silver Crown, a fetish capable of channeling Falcon itself. When the King attempted to use the Silver Crown to dominate and crush the other Garou tribes into extinction, Falcon rebuked him. Emberstone went mad, the Silver Crown was lost, and Winter Snow collapsed. Austere Howl and Gleaming Eye both rushed in to fill the power gap, The House of Stuart were kinfolk of Austere Howl and the House of Hanover kinfolk of Gleaming Eye. Human politics in no small part caused discord between the two Silver Fang houses, as did Gleaming Eye's distrust of Austere Howl's pacts with the Fae and cultivation of kinfolk Namers which they claimed were instrumental in fighting the fomori and Black Spiral Dancers. . The Bone Gnawers & Warders of Men of London Ironically, despite London emerging as the seat of political power within England, the Silver Fangs themselves showed no interest in it. They generally ruled from powerful wilderness towns and were ill-prepared for the population boom of London that struck in 950 AD. By 1100, the city had a population of 18,000. The only tribe, however, with any real presence within the city at the time was the Bone Gnawers. They fought the city's vampiric overlords with ruthless courage. Sometimes friends, sometimes foes with the Ratkin, the Bone Gnawers were on hand when the Black Death arrived in London and the surrounding area in 1348; the city lost 1/3 of its total population and that likely would have been worse without Bone Gnawer intervention. When the Peasants' revolt began in 1381, the Bone Gnawers and their kin were a galvanizing force, aided by the Children of Gaia and Warders of Men. Silver Fang jaws crushed Bone Gnawer throats. The Fianna were this time the mediators, gaining concessions for the "low tribes" from the Silver Fangs that were somewhat generous for the era. This era established something of a "two party system" for the Garou of England: the aristocratic Silver Fangs ruling rural England, Scotland, and Wales with the grudging support of the Fianna and Get of Fenris, with the progressive Children of Gaia, Warders of Men, and Bone Gnawers having to work twice as hard to earn half the renown but being allowed to create their own small somewhat autonomous city caerns and septs. Garou from other tribes immigrated as individuals or packs but never gained any substancial foothold in England. The English Civil War & Industrial Revolution The English Civil War played itself out within the Garou as most tribes supported the Parliament of England- and likewise, a more parliamentary Concordiat. The British Silver Fangs were forced to work together to maintain control of England's most influential septs through the Interregnum and the beginning of the Restoration. Concessions were made that enabled the Children of Gaia, the Glasswalkers, and the Bone Gnawers to expand small urban caerns in the cities and to create forms of collective or democratic governance there if they so chose. Austere Howl formally moved itself to the Summerlands Protectorate in 1660, allowing a mix of Scottish Fianna & others to take over direct rulership of the septs on both sides of the England-Scotland border while they sought to directly protect and lead the more powerful caerns found in Sommerset, Devon, Dorset, and Cornwall. The Victorian Era & Beyond Queen Victoria was the last British monarch of the House of Hanover- and the first Silver Fang kinfolk to become a Technocrat. She had been raised by her completely human mother. When she took the throne at the age of 18, the Garou Nation realized quickly the threat she represented to the Concordiat. The Silver Fangs were forced out of national politics and never again regained it, though numerous Prime Ministers and members of Parliament were Silver Fang kinfolk. The English Garou, struggling against the rapid expansion of banes and fomor fed from the escalation of industry, more or less settled into working with one another against outside antagonists during the 1800s-1900s. World War I and II brought a trickle of other tribes such as the Shadow Lords and Black Furies into Britain, but they generally settled into south-eastern England and the more urban caerns. House Austere Howl & Red Jack House Gleaming Eye had never approved of House Austere's seeming dependence upon kinfolk with spiritual or magical gifts of their own, nor their willingness to interbreed with the Fae. Infernal or Wyrm cults had been on the rise in England throughout the 1800-1900s. One such group was called The Red Circle. In the 1980s, they brought into their midst a powerful kinfolk sorcerer, Viceroy Abbott, who was direct kin to King Jonathan Falcon's Mate of Austere Howl. The Red Circle was able to corrupt other kinfolk sorcerers over the next decade. They completed a ritual that unleashed a monstrocity called Red Jack in 2000. By 2004, it had killed King Jonathan and caused a schism that led to the death of two more. Young Queen Mary was forced to flee into the Umbra in early 2002, pursued by House Gleaming Eye who decried her and all of Austere Howl as corrupted by the Wyrm. Many of the gifted but untainted kin fled to the United States, taking with them two of Queen Mary's young half siblings whose mother was kithain. Lion's Mount, the crown caern, was destroyed by Red Jack. Surviving Silver Fang caerns in England were taken over by Gleaming Eye, who instituted a pogrom against sorcerers, witches, and wizards in general. 2010 Golden Sky Reborn King Byron Constantine was 6 years old when he was taken to California and raised by kinfolk mages. He did not have his First Change until his 22nd birthday. He had failed the Rite of Baptism and raised under the assumption he was kinfolk only. Following his Rite of Passage, he and his new pack were sent to Denver Colorado to the sept of Redemption's Road where he spent two years making allies among the Garou, Fera, Fae and local Namers. When a local moot was interrupted by the appearance of the spirits of Arak Mammoth-Bold and his pack who charged Bryon to restore House Golden Sky, and as its King, defeat Red Jack and take up guardianship of the Summerlands once again. Later that year, Byron fufilled his oath to Arak Mammoth-Bold and with the help of his allies, destroyed Red Jack and restored the flow of gnosis to Lion's mount, summoning Lion as its totem. Byron did not, however, remain in England but promised to return once other promises made to his people in Denver had been fufilled. Other members of Austere Howl, including Byron's kinfolk sister, remained in Somerset awaiting his return.